


Nyan

by cuddlesome



Category: Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Cutesy, Gen, Just Add Kittens, Male-Female Friendship, Sappy, Team Magma - Freeform, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, my hand slipped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-09
Updated: 2014-12-09
Packaged: 2018-02-28 18:12:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2742176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesome/pseuds/cuddlesome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tabitha entered Team Magma's base with a churlish mood and a wriggling bundle in his arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nyan

**Author's Note:**

> Skitty's cry in the anime literally just sounds like "nyaaaaan" and it is simultaneously the most adorable and annoying sound in the entire universe.
> 
> As a side note, the magma grunt that stands next to the vending machine in the base is my favorite grunt of all time.

The telltale stomps of Tabitha's approach were quicker than usual that day. A grunt walking through the hallway, absorbed in some paperwork, would have a scant moment to look up before being roughly forced aside by their admin's bulk or a well-placed elbow. That wouldn’t have been too terrible outside of embarrassment, except for the fact that this resulted in nearly hitting the ambient tubes of magma running through their base.

If, by some chance, they got a better look at him, they might notice that Tabitha didn't have his vest on. Instead, he had it balled in his arms. If they somehow managed to look even closer, they would see a slight wriggle originating from the rumpled pile of fabric every once in a while.

And if they listened very closely, they might even hear a tiny mewl.

After a head-on impact with a grunt who had been paying more attention to the soda pop he had just gotten than to his rapidly approaching admin, Tabitha about lost it.

“Out of my way,” he snarled, holding his bundle to his chest and leveling a red-eyed glower at the lower class member. “Can't you see I'm in a hurry?”

"M-my apologies, Mister Tabitha!"

He sidestepped to one side of the hall, allowing Tabitha to pass. The grunt peered after Tabitha as he made his way to the next warp panel and relaxed only after he’d gone completely.

“This is what I get for having no self-restraint and buying a soda…” He moaned, clutching the bottle’s neck with one hand and his forehead with the other.

Tabitha reached his quarters without any further delays aside from a confused, questioning murmur from a scientist and Courtney’s dead-eyed scrutiny, both of which he pointedly ignored.

He turned on his heel to face the onlookers in the hallway once he reached his room. "I, Tabitha, have some very important business to attend to and I will not be disturbed!"

With that, he went into his room.

The Magma scientist fidgeted with his clipboard. "Mistress Courtney..?"

"...on it." She said before heading after Tabitha.

Maxie’s second in command had a good deal of infamy when it came to his sudden mood swings. One moment he’d be laughing with the rookie grunts. The next, for no discernible reason, he’d threaten to pulverize anyone who so much as looked in his general direction.

The spells of anger didn’t last long, as the presence of Courtney usually calmed him down. She was also the only person that ever managed to, on occasion, get him to admit the the reasons why he got upset. This was accomplished through a series of analytical questions delivered in her halting, monotone voice. In this way, Tabitha and Courtney had pseudo-therapeutic sessions. They often ended with the larger of the two admins hunched over and crying but relieved of emotional baggage while his significantly smaller cohort hugged his side, patted his back, and mechanically said words of comfort.

As willing as she was to help him sort through his issues, Courtney hoped something minor troubled him this time. The less pain-filled breakdowns Tabitha had, the better.

Courtney opened his door and stuck her head inside. “Hey… Tabitha...”

"I just said I don't want to be disturbed, you annoying pests!"

Courtney’s lips parted just so as she ducked to dodge a magazine chucked at her head.

"You really should... open up your eyes... and look at who it is," Courtney said, adjusting her hood and checking to be sure the horns hadn’t gotten jolted to one side as a result of the sudden movement, "before you throw things. What if I was… someone important? Well, more important… aha..."

"Like who, Boss Maxie? He always knocks before intruding in my living space.” Tabitha kept his back to her, focused on nothing but hugging the vest to himself. “My desire to be left alone applies to you too, Courtney. Go away."

"...rude..."

She started to ask him what was wrong, even with the knowledge she wouldn’t get an immediate answer, only to be interrupted by a high-pitched meow. Tabitha’s shoulders slumped.

“...Tabitha.”

Tabitha exhaled. “Yes, Courtney?”

“That was a… a Skitty’s call, Tabitha...”

“Yes, Courtney.”

Dejectedly, Tabitha turned to face her and unfurled his vest, allowing a small pink-and-cream head to pop out.

The Skitty let out another cry, slightly louder than before, as if to say ‘finally out of there’, but made no move to escape Tabitha’s arms.

"Analyzing..." Courtney fixed a hard stare on the kitten Pokémon.

It was sopping wet, presumably from one of the storms that had recently plagued Lilycove, and covered in ribbons awarded to Contest winners. In spite of the rainwater bogging it down and its recent smothering underneath Tabitha’s vest, it appeared to be content.

"Foolish thing was wandering around in the rain." Tabitha’s lips quirked to one side as the Skitty’s ears swiveled toward the sound of his voice. “I waited around the Contest Hall for a while, but no one came looking--o-okay, stop that immediately--”

The Skitty had twisted around to face its rescuer and rub its face against his chest.

“Attention seeking brat…” Tabitha mumbled, shifting his vest to one arm so he could pet the Skitty.

Courtney couldn’t help but notice Tabitha acted remarkably calm considering his near-explosive anger as he made his way through the base. As Courtney watched the Skitty nuzzling and purring against Tabitha’s gloved hand, the pieces fell into place. He had acted angry to keep anyone from asking questions about his precious cargo. Her lips curled into the tiniest of smiles before she went back to focusing on the problem at hand.

“Why not… bring it to the… Pokémon Center?”  
  
“Ah, yes, I’ll just waltz in with a Pokémon that clearly isn’t mine while I’m decked out in full Team Magma regalia.” Tabitha grinned bitterly. “You know as well as I that everyone in Lilycove is aggravated by our presence; they’d accuse me of Pokémon theft on the spot.”

Courtney nodded. “Good point…”

Team Magma didn’t make a habit of stealing Pokémon, but the general public maintained the suspicion that they would do so just as so many other team-based organizations often seemed to do.

“So… what, then…? Are you… going to..?” She let the question hang unfinished in the air.

Silence stretched between them for a moment, interrupted only by the gregarious mewls from the Skitty, before Tabitha realized Courtney wasn’t just having an especially long pause as per her speaking pattern.

“Am I going to keep it?”

“...yes. Since it… seems to have… grown…” She stumbled over the next word, taking a moment to sound it out.  “...a-attach-ed.”

Courtney fully expected him to flat-out refuse to keep the abandoned Skitty. He looked ready to do so, opening his mouth with an offended curl to his lip.

The Skitty stopped him before he could speak with another meow, causing Tabitha to look down at it. It wriggled out of the bundled up vest and hooked its tiny claws into his sweater. Before Tabitha got the chance to pry it off of himself, the Skitty clambered up his torso, hanging in a precarious vertical position from his sweater and nuzzling his chin.

Courtney and Tabitha both watched, bemused, before he reached up to detach the Skitty’s claws and support its weight in his hands, dropping his vest to the floor. For the second time that day, Courtney smiled a tiny smile. Tabitha also smiled, but with his usual fervor, toothy and wide.

“Nyaaaaaaaan,” the Skitty declared, pressing its forehead to Tabitha’s cheek.

“I think it… likes you…” Courtney said. “I think it… really likes your... eyes… ahahahaha...”

Courtney’s laugh didn’t have the same halting intervals as her speaking voice, instead flowing from her with an unbroken, musical quality. Coaxing that pretty laughter forward usually had the consequence of being at someone else’s expense. Tabitha, well aware of this, gave her a suspicious look.

“My eyes? What do you mean?”


End file.
